Computing systems may include peripheral devices. Peripheral devices may add to or change the functionality of the computing system. In many cases, peripheral devices are connected to the computing system using an interconnect. The interconnect may implement a standard bus protocol, such as any of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) family of bus protocols.
The bus protocols used to connect peripheral devices to a computing system generally give the peripheral device a broad range of access. For example, a peripheral device may, using the interconnect, be able to access another peripheral device, the computing system's memory, and/or the computing system's processor.
The arrangement of the peripheral devices connected to a computing system may change. For example, a peripheral device can be added or removed. The configuration of a peripheral device may also change. In some cases, changing the arrangement of the peripheral devices, or their configuration, may have undesirable effects on the computing system.